Black Metaphor Breaks Down His Hits for Meek Mill, Young Jeezy and More

It takes some producers years to land a beat with a major-label artist, let alone a breakout banger. But 23-year-old upstart Byron Forest, better known as Black Metaphor, is making it look easy. The bubbling, Atlanta-based—Southside Atlanta to be exact—beatsmith snagged his first big record with Young Jeezy’s It’s Tha World standout heatrock “Get Right.” But that’s not all: After signing with the Nightrydas Production team (consisting of Kenoe, Tone the Beat Bully, Snizzy and Crack Coke) this past August, Black, who attends Middle Tennessee State University for audio production, quickly landed placement on Meek Mill’s Dreams and Nightmares with the track “In God We Trust,” and soon after the production credits started rolling in. Just recently, he was featured on French Montana’s Mac & Cheese 3 mixtape (“My Sanctuary”) as well as Game’s Jesus Piece (“Scared Now” and “Ali Bomaye”). Fresh off this remarkable run of big beats, Black Metaphor sits down with XXL and breaks down all of his recent hits. —Ralph Bristout (@RalphieBlackmon)

XXL: How long have you been producing?

Black Metaphor: I've been producing for about five years. About two years ago I had an internship with J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League. They showed me a lot. I learned a lot from being in their sessions and getting to listen to their music and watch how they make it. After that, that's when I came up here [Tennessee] to school so, I took what I learned from them and spent a year or two trying to perfect my shit before I even tried to push it out there. All of this started as I started pushing my shit out there.

Young Jeezy’s “Get Right” was your first big break. How’d you link with him for it?

This summer I got the opportunity to work with Young Jeezy through Scrilla, I had a track on his mixtape—you know, he's signed to CTE. When I went to meet Jeezy, he picked like eight beats the first night I linked with him, and then he told me he wanted me to come back and do something on the spot. That week I came back and did that. That's really where this all started. Shout out to Nightrydas Productions and my man Kenoe, they're definitely most of the reason why all of this is going down right now as far as making these moves, just because the connections that they got. They let me join in on what they had already going on, and it's [been a] blessing to be able to shine with them.

From there you landed on Meek’s album. How did that come about?

Yeah. I signed with Nightrydas in August, that's how I got on Meek Mill's album. It was last minute. I knew three or four producer friends of mine that all had joints that was supposed to go on his album. The whole summer I was the dude that was just out here trying to get it, and next thing you know I'm the nigga that end up on the album. It's all a blessing.

What are your plans for 2013?

Just continue to strive for greatness. I just signed a pub deal with Big John at Warner Chapel, that's a very good situation for me. Keep making some music—I got a couple things in the works.